Bound (film) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bound Bound movie poster.jpg Theatrical release poster Directed by The Wachowskis Produced by Stuart Boros Andrew Lazar Written by The Wachowskis Starring Jennifer Tilly Gina Gershon Joe Pantoliano Music by Don Davis Cinematography Bill Pope Edited by Zach Staenberg Production company Dino De Laurentiis Company Spelling Group Distributed by Gramercy Pictures Release dates August 31, 1996 (Venice Film Festival) October 4, 1996 (US) Running time 108 minutes Country United States Language English Budget $6,000,000[1] Box office $3,802,260 (US sub-total) Bound is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film written and directed by Th e Wachowskis in their feature film directorial debut. Violet (Jennifer Tilly), w ho longs to escape her relationship with her mafioso boyfriend Caesar (Joe Panto liano), enters into a clandestine affair with alluring ex-con Corky (Gina Gersho n), and the two women hatch a scheme to steal $2 million of mafia money. Bound was the first film directed by the Wachowskis, and they took inspiration f rom Billy Wilder to tell a noir story filled with sex and violence. Financed by Dino De Laurentiis, the film was made on a tight budget with the help of frugal crew members including cinematographer Bill Pope. The directors initially strugg led to cast the lesbian characters of Violet and Corky before securing Tilly and Gershon. To choreograph the sex scenes, the directors employed 'sex educator' S usie Bright, who also made a cameo appearance in the film. Bound received positive reviews from film critics who praised the humor and styl e of the directors as well as the realistic portrayal of a lesbian relationship in a mainstream film. Detractors of the film criticized the excessive violence a nd superficiality of the plot. The film won several festival awards. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Background and production 2.1 Conception 2.2 Casting 2.3 Filming 2.4 Sex scenes 3 Themes 4 Rating and distribution 5 Reception 5.1 Box office 5.2 Critical response 5.3 Awards 6 Music 6.1 Track listing 7 References 8 External links Plot[edit] Corky (Gina Gershon), an ex-con who has just finished a five-year jail sentence, arrives at an apartment building to start work as a painter and plumber. On her way up to the apartment, she encounters the couple who live next-door, Violet ( Jennifer Tilly) and Caesar (Joe Pantoliano). After Caesar has gone out, Violet f lirts with Corky and asks her to help retrieve an earring that has fallen down h er sink. After Corky extracts the earring, Violet admits she lost it on purpose in order to get closer to Corky, and starts to seduce her. They are interrupted by the arrival of Caesar and Corky goes back to work. When she leaves for the da y, Violet follows her to her truck. They go to Corky's apartment and have sex. T he next morning, Violet tells Corky that Caesar is a money launderer for the Maf ia and they have been together for five years. Later, Violet overhears Caesar and his Mafia associates beating and torturing Sh elly (Barry Kivel), a man who has been skimming money from the business. Upset b y the violence and cruelty, Violet seeks solace from Corky. She tells Corky that she wants to make a new life for herself, but that she needs her help. Knowing that Caesar will find the nearly $2 million Shelly took and count it in their ap artment, the two women hatch a scheme to steal the money. Corky, already wary of Violet's intentions, is unsure whether to trust her. Shelly is shot and killed by Johnnie (Christopher Meloni), the son of Mafia boss Gino Marzzone (Richard C. Sarafian), and Caesar returns to the apartment with a bag of bloody money. Angry at Johnnie for killing Shelly in a fit of rage and s plattering blood everywhere, Caesar proceeds to wash, iron and hang the money to dry. Violet explains to Corky that Caesar and Johnnie hate each other, and that Gino and Johnnie will be coming to pick up the money from Caesar. The plan is as foll ows: When Caesar has finished counting the money, Violet will get him a drink to relax him before he showers. Corky will be next-door, waiting until she hears C aesar turn on the shower. When he does, Violet will drop the bottle of Scotch th at is for Gino and tell Caesar that she is going to buy more. As she leaves the apartment, she will let Corky in, who will steal the money from a briefcase and leave. Violet will then return with the Scotch and tell Caesar that she just saw Johnnie leaving, but that Gino was not with him. Suspicious, Caesar will check the briefcase, find the money gone, and assume Johnnie has taken it. Corky and V iolet think Caesar will be forced to skip town because Gino will assume he has b een robbed by Caesar, not his son. Everything goes as planned until Caesar finds the money gone. He realizes that i f he runs, Gino will think he took the money. He decides he has to get the money back from Johnnie. Panicking, Violet threatens to leave. Caesar pulls out his g un and forces her to stay, thinking that maybe she and Johnnie have stolen the m oney and framed him. Corky waits next-door with the money while Gino and Johnnie arrive. After watchi ng Johnnie flirt with Violet and taunt him, Caesar pulls out a gun and tells Gin o that his son stole the money. In an angry panic, he kills them both and a thir d guy. He tells Violet that they have to find the money, dispose of the bodies, and pretend Gino and Johnnie never arrived, lest their Mafia pals find the money or men missing. Unable to find the money at Johnnie's apartment, Caesar telepho nes Mickey (John P. Ryan), a Mafia friend, telling him that Gino has yet to arri ve. After discovering Corky and Violet stole the money, Caesar ties them up, gags th em, threatens to torture them, and demands to know where it is. When Mickey arri ves to see what is going on, Caesar, panicked, prepares to kill Mickey, when the phone rings. Violet is calling from another room and quickly convinces Caesar t o pretend that he's on the phone with an associate of Mickey, who's calling from a hospital to explain that Gino and Johnnie were in a car accident. Mickey is c onvinced and leaves for the hospital. Corky tells Caesar where she has hidden th e money, and he goes next-door to find it. Violet escapes and makes a phone call to Mickey, telling him that Caesar stole the money and forced her to keep quiet . In the meantime, Corky tries to stop Caesar from taking the money, but he beat s her to the ground. Just as he is about to kill her, Violet arrives and pulls a gun on Caesar, telling him that Mickey is on his way and that he should run whi le he can. Caesar tells Violet that he knows she will not shoot him, to which sh e replies, "Caesar, you don't know shit", before killing him. Later, Mickey, who believes Violet's story, tells her that he will find Caesar, and that there is no need to involve the police. Mickey wants Violet to be his g irlfriend, but she tells him that she needs a clean breakwhich she makes by drivi ng off hand-in-hand with Corky. Background and production[edit] Conception[edit] Film producer Joel Silver has said that after working as scriptwriters on Assass ins, the Wachowskis made Bound as an "audition piece" to prove that they knew wh at to do on a movie set.[1] They had the idea to write a story about how one mig ht see a woman on the street and make assumptions about her sexuality, but how t hose assumptions might be wrong.[2] They wanted to play with stereotypes and mak e an entertaining film that contained sex and violence, because those are the ki nds of films that they like to watch.[1][2] Seeing film noir as a genre within w hich they could tell a contained story and twist conventions, they described Bil ly Wilder as a big influence.[2] When executives at some studios read the script, they told the Wachowskis that i f they changed the character of Corky to that of a man, they would be interested . The siblings declined, saying "that movie's been made a million times, so we'r e really not interested in it."[3] Dino De Laurentiis, the executive producer on Assassins, offered to finance Bound and his company produced it, giving them "f ree rein" with regard to the story.[4] The film's budget was $6,000,000.[1] Casting[edit] The Wachowskis struggled to cast the roles of Violet and Corky, seemingly becaus e of the lesbian content of the film. Few actresses were interested.[3] The part of Violet was expected to go to Linda Hamilton, and Jennifer Tilly read for the part of Corky. She loved the role and was looking forward to playing a characte r very different from previous parts in her career.[5] When the part of Violet b ecame available, and Gina Gershon came in to read for Corky, Tilly agreed that G ershon would make a better Corky.[6] She realized that she identified with the c haracter of Violet, a woman "underestimated by all the men around her" who has t o "play the game".[5][7] She describes it as the best role she had ever had.[5] Gina Gershon suggested Joe Pantoliano to the Wachowskis for the part of Caesar. His first lead role in a film, he describes it as his favorite.[8] Filming[edit] Bound was shot in thirty-eight days in Santa Monica, California.[3][4] The Wacho wskis' original director of photography resigned on the grounds that he could no t do the film with the limited budget he had available, nor did he know anyone h e believed could. Subsequently cinematographer Bill Pope was hired, who knew "a bunch of cheap guys".[9] Pope became heavily involved in creating the visual noi r style of the film. He and the Wachowskis drew from their love of comics and we re influenced by Frank Miller's neo-noir Sin City series in particular.[1] Pope' s sound counterpart was sound director Dane Davis. One of his ideas was to give Corky a cat-like quality by making a "swishing" sound every time she walks past the camera in the scene where she and Violet plan the theft.[4] The Wachowskis asked Joe Pantoliano to watch John Huston's The Treasure of the S ierra Madre and to focus on Humphrey Bogart's character in order to prepare the paranoia of Caesar.[4] Gershon's influences for her role were James Dean, Marlon Brando and Clint Eastwood.[4] Both Gershon and Tilly were nervous about filming the sex scenes and prepared by drinking tequila.[7] Very little improvisation took place during the filming due to the directors' ex tensive planning and clear vision for the film.[4] Not everything went as expect ed, however, as the physical exchanges in the script caused some injuries. Barry Kivel, whose character Shelly was violently beaten in Caesar's bathroom, receiv ed a head injury from his head being banged against the toilet. In the scenes be tween Corky and Caesar near the end of the film, Gina Gershon hit her hand so ha rd when she knocked a gun from Joe Pantoliano's hand that she required stitches. [4] Sex scenes[edit] The sex scenes were choreographed by feminist writer and sex educator Susie Brig ht. The Wachowskis were fans of Bright and sent her a copy of the script with a letter asking her to be an extra in the film. When she read the script she loved it, particularly as it was about women enjoying having sex and not apologizing for it. Disappointed that they never described exactly what was happening in the sex scenes, she asked if she could be a sex consultant for the film and they ag reed.[4] The main sex scene set in Corky's apartment was filmed in one long shot . The Wachowskis believed that this would look more realistic than several shots edited together.[4] Although it should have been a closed set, there were actua lly many people present, moving the walls of the set in order to allow full move ment of the camera around the actors.[4] Bright appeared as Jesse, the woman Corky tries to talk to in the bar. Comedienn e Margaret Smith played Jesse's girlfriend and the extras in the bar scene were Bright's friends"real life San Francisco dykes".[4] Themes[edit] The Wachowskis describe several themes present in Bound. They say that the film is about "the boxes people make of their lives", that it is not only gay people who "live in closets". They wanted to define all of Bound's characters by the "s ort of trap that they were making out of their lives".[3] Violet is trapped in h er life with Caesar, and in the first scene, Corky is literally inside Violet's closet, bound and gagged by Caesar.[4] This scene is echoed later in the film wh en Violet says "I had this image of you inside of me..."[4] This theme of being trapped is exacerbated by the claustrophobic feeling created by the fact that mo st of the film takes place in Corky's apartment, Violet and Casear's apartment, or the apartment next door where Corky is working.[4] Susie Bright described some of the specifically lesbian themes of the film. One is the concept of the hand as a sex organ, highlighted by lingering camera shots of Corky and Violet's hands.[4] Another is the repeated use of water as a symbo lic motif to represent women, present for example when Corky is retrieving Viole t's earring from the sink.[4] Bright describes it as a movie that is "wet" (femi nine) as opposed to "hard" (masculine).[4] She says the scene where Corky and Vi olet have their first conversation is full of "lesbian signs". She highlights th e fact that Violet, away from Caesar, is wearing jeans and able to be less overt ly feminine. Jennifer Tilly says that whenever Violet is talking to men, her voi ce becomes high-pitched and "girly"making her seem vulnerable and ensuring she is taken care of. Joe Pantoliano agrees, saying that the result is that "everyone in the film wants to be with Violet".[4] When she is with Corky, Violet can drop the act and talk at a more natural pitch. According to Bright, the more subtle lesbian themes of the film were noticed and appreciated at the LGBT film festiva l screenings.[4] Rating and distribution[edit] Bound was rated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) as R for "st rong sexuality, violence and language." To achieve that rating, the directors ha d to cut part of the first sex scene between Corky and Violet.[4] The MPAA were most concerned with the images of what Lana Wachowski called "hand-sex".[10] It was rated R in Australia, R18 in New Zealand and 18 in the United Kingdom. In Ca nada it was rated as R in Manitoba and Ontario, 18 in Nova Scotia and 16+ in Que bec. The film premiered on August 31, 1996, at the Venice Film Festival and in Septem ber went on to play at the Toronto International Film Festival. It opened in U.S . theaters on October 4, 1996 distributed by Gramercy Pictures, showing in 261 t heaters.[11] It closed after three weeks. It opened in the United Kingdom on Feb ruary 28, 1997.[12] Bound was released on Region 1 DVD on November 12, 1997, by Republic Pictures. I t featured the original theatrical trailer and an audio commentary by the direct ors and stars.[13] It was released on Region 2 DVD on August 25, 2003, by Pathé fe aturing original theatrical trailers, audio commentary by the directors and star s, cast and crew biographies and a production featurette.[14] Its Region 4 DVD r elease, distributed by Reel and featuring an audio commentary, came on August 14 , 2006.[15] Reception[edit] Box office[edit] Bound grossed $3,802,260 in the United States. In its opening weekend, showing a t 261 theaters, it earned $900,902, which was 23.7% of its total gross.[11] Acco rding to Box Office Mojo, it ranked at 161 for all films released in the United States in 1996, and at 74 for R-rated films released that year. As of July 2012, its all-time ranking for LGBT-related films is 59.[11] Critical response[edit] The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave it a "fresh" rating of 92% ba sed on 37 reviews, while Metacritic gave it a score of 61/100 based on 19 review s.[16][17] The Wachowskis were widely acclaimed by critics for their debut which was described as clever, sophisticated and stylish.[18][19][20] Roger Ebert sai d that their skillful film making showed virtuosity and confidence.[21] Marjorie Baumgarten writing for The Austin Chronicle called it an impressive debut sayin g that the Wachowskis have "style to burn".[22] James Kendrick called it a darkl y comical and stunning film, saying it signalled the arrival of the Wachowskis o n the film scene.[23] Detractors of the film included Todd McCarthy for Variety, who said that the directors had no sense of humor and lacked depth, that the fi lm was pretentious, superficial and heavy-handed.[24] On the release of Bound, the Wachowskis were compared by many to the Coen Brothe rs.[23][25] Rita Kempley for The Washington Post went so far as to call them "Co en Brothers clones".[18] In particular, similarities were drawn between Bound an d the Coen Brothers' first film, 1984 neo-noir Blood Simple.[26][27] Bryant Fraz er for Deep Focus called it an "obvious precursor".[28] Critics noted resemblanc es to the films of Quentin Tarantino and Alfred Hitchcock.[23][29][30] The violence in the film was condemned by some critics and praised by others. Janet Maslin for The New York Times said that the grisly violence in Bound would likely limit its audience and Ebert said that its shocking violence would offen d some audiences.[21][25] Some critics said that the violent behavior of the cha racters had no moral justification. Rita Kempley for The Washington Post called it "well-nigh unwatchable cruelty for its own sake".[18] McCarthy, who called th e central relationship between the two women unbelievable and unsympathetic, sai d "just because Violet and Corky fall for each other doesn't mean they somehow f all into a privileged state of grace in which vile behavior can be forgiven."[24 ] Other critics were less concerned, calling the violence "comically excessive" and "Tarantino-like".[20][29] Bound was praised for being perhaps the first mainstream film to have a lesbian relationship at its heart without homosexuality being central to the plot.[30][3 1] Despite the presence of "unapologetically gay" lead character Corky, it is no t commonly considered a "lesbian movie".[26][32] Emanuel Levy said that this is a weakness, that mainstream films with broadening storylines "do not necessarily represent a positive development in the making of gay and lesbian films" and th at Bound has "little, if anything, to do with lesbian cinema".[20] Jonathan Rose nbaum for the Chicago Reader called it a "welcome change" to have a lesbian coup le as the main characters in a mainstream film.[33] Sarah Warn for AfterEllen.co m called Corky "the closest thing to a realistic and sympathetic butch lesbian w e've seen in a mainstream movie".[31] Barry Walters for the San Francisco Chroni cle praised the film for showing gay characters that have an active sex life.[34 ] The sex scenes, described as explicit and steamy, were admired for being taste ful, discreet and realistic.[32][34] Warn called them "some of the best lesbian sex scenes to date in a mainstream movie".[31] The three lead actors were complimented for their performances. Ebert said that Gershon and Tilly were electric together, and Frazer said that he would have lik ed to have seen more of their love story.[21][28] Some critics, however, describ ed their onscreen relationship as unbelievable and unsympathetic.[19][24] Gersho n was seen to have made a comeback after her role in the less well received 1995 film Showgirls.[21] Tilly's performance was compared to her Academy Award-nomin ated part in Bullets Over Broadway.[27] Pantoliano was described as "a lot of fu n" and having the "trickiest scenes in the movie".[21][35] Awards[edit] Bound won the Grand Jury AwardHonorable Mention at the 1996 L.A. Outfest, and in the same year won an Honorable Mention at the Stockholm International Film Festi val.[36][37] At the 1997 Fantasporto festival in Portugal, the Wachowskis were a warded the International Fantasy Film Award for best film, and Jennifer Tilly pi cked up the award for best actress.[38] Bound won the 1997 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding (wide-release) Film.[17] The film was nominated for the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics.[39] Music[edit] The score, composed by Don Davis, was given a promotional release on November 25 , 1997 by Super Tracks Music Group, but has never been released commercially.[40 ] Having her character Corky play a jaw harp was Gina Gershon's idea.[4] The dir ectors were significantly limited by their budget when it came to choosing songs for the soundtrack. They had wanted to use "The Girl from Ipanema" and Frank Si natra songs, but could not afford to.[4] The four songs used in the film were no t included on the score release.[41]